EU4Health

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EU4Health is the European Union's Programme in the field of health for the period 2021- 2027.

This funding line aims to significantly improve the health of the European population by supporting the fight against cross-border health threats and strengthening the EU's preparedness and capacity to respond effectively to future health crises as part of building a strong European Health Union.

Objectives

Specifically, the EU4Health Programme pursues the following objectives:

• to improve and promote health in the Union, with a view to reducing the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, supporting health promotion and disease prevention, reducing health inequalities, promoting healthy lifestyles and promoting access to healthcare;
• protect people in the Union against serious cross-border health threats and strengthen the responsiveness of health systems and coordination between Member States to address serious cross-border health threats by complementing national supplies of essential products relevant to the crisis and by establishing a reserve of medical, health and support staff;
• increase the availability and accessibility, including affordability, of medicinal products, medical devices and products relevant for the crisis in the Union and support innovation in relation to those products, as well as the efficient use of medicinal products;
• strengthen national health systems, through better use of health data, development of digital tools and services, digital transformation of health; improve access to care, develop and implement EU health legislation, evidence-based decision-making mechanisms and integrated working between Member States' health systems.

The 10 specific objectives within the 4 general objectives are:

• 1. improving and promoting health in the EU
  • disease prevention and health promotion
  • international health and cooperation initiatives
• 2. addressing cross-border health threats
  • prevention, preparedness and response to cross-border health threats
  • supplementing national reserves of essential products relevant in the event of a crisis
  • setting up a reserve of medical, health and support staff
• 3. improving medicines, medical devices and crisis-relevant products
  • providing medicines, medical devices and crisis-related products at affordable prices
• 4. strengthening health systems, their resilience and efficient use of resources
  • strengthening health data, digital tools and services, and the digital transformation of healthcare
  • improving access to health care
  • developing and implementing EU health legislation and evidence-based decision-making
  • integrated cooperation between national health systems

Cancer is also a primary and cross-cutting initiative and the EU4Health Programme will be implemented in overall coherence, synergy and complementarity with other Union programmes, policies, instruments and actions. The EU actions in the field of cancer control, on the basis of which the hypotheses of projects to be financed by the various Programmes will be constructed, are contained in a specific "EU beating Cancer Plan", published on 3rd of February 2021 (pdf).

Structure and actions of the programme

The programme, which aims to ensure a high level of human health protection in all EU policies and activities, in line with the 'One Health' approach, has four strands:

• Disease prevention
• Preparing for the crisis
• Health systems and health personnel
• Digital

Duration and budget

The Programme is active for the period 2021- 2027.

With a total budget of 5.3 billion euros, it is Europe's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and will provide funding to EU countries, research and health organisations and NGOs.

How to participate

EU4Health provides financial support to eligible legal entities from Member States, associated third countries or listed in the annual work programme established under Union law, or to international organisations such as health organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the private sector and other eligible legal entities.

The programme is implemented by a new executive agency, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), which became operational on 1 April 2021.

The financial contribution may cover up to 60% of eligible costs and, in some exceptional cases, up to 80% of eligible costs.

Contributions under the Programme may take the form of grants, prizes and procurement contracts. To implement the programme, the Commission adopts annual work programmes setting out the actions to be undertaken, the breakdown of resources allocated to them and the eligible actions and deadlines.

Participant Identification Code (PIC)

It is necessary that the participating organisation is registered in the Participant Portal and has a PIC (Participant Identification Code). The PIC for the University of Florence is 999895789.

Documents, websites and guidelines

• Programme website
• Regulation (pdf)
• Work programme for 2023 (pdf)
• Executive Agency for Health and Digital
• Questions and answers
• Other reference documents

Contacts

UP Ricerca europea e internazionale
Liana Massagni